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The study of the multiverse, or True Universe as it’s referred to in academic circles, is very much a field in flux. The following document is presented more for historical concept than as any actual guide to True Universal Theory. Modern readers will find most of Masuchezaninin’s ideas at best outdated, and often hopelessly wrong. Still, he is considered one of the originators of current TU Theory, and his lectures are vital reading for anybody interested in understanding more about the Library and the worlds surrounding it. Misguided as they may be, in this text you can find the foundations of most every aspect of modern day study.

The shape of the True Universe is a nebulous thing, and few subjects have been more contentious among scholars in the history of the Library. Notably, the term “True Universe” is still contested, with many arguing that it is either inaccurate, for there can be no such thing as a “True” Universe, or that it leads to misleading implications of a “False” universe. However, for the theses I am about to present, it is a more than applicable term, and the ideas set forth are too complicated to be encapsulated in any way by a single phrase, so it is the one I have settled on.1

Many theories have been presented on these worlds we live in, and how they relate, and how they lock in with one another. The primary problem I have found with all of them is that they come from a place not of exploration and discovery, but of scholarship and theory. Fascinating as Pia’s Tiered Construction theory, or Ala-Norn’s concept of Universal Reproduction, or Gizzo Hesh’s Reflected Library experiment may be, they come from a place of scholarship, not discovery. They are building off the discoveries of others rather than forging their own, a method which can never lead to true understanding of a subject, for to map the True Universe without having explored it is as meaningless an action as cooking without hunting, or fighting without having been beaten.2

It is here that the gaps in Pia’s knowledge become apparent, because, as anyone who has spent any significant amount of time away from the Shelves can tell you, the universe has many limits. We must only look at the existence “Lone Realms”, worlds for which no duplicates or mutations exist, to realize this. The most obvious of these would be the Library, though sprouting from it are 16 others, including the Ravelwoods, Elrich, Titan’s Grave, the Not, Halluspeza, Shadowpeaks, and White Seas.3

In my travels between these worlds and others, it has become apparent to me that these 16 plus 1 worlds form a sort of “hub”, around which all others are centralized, and through which access between them is regulated. Imagine a great kingdom, with the Library forming the capital in the center, and the Lone Realms connected to it and each other by various roads. Of note is the connection between the lone realms themselves, each being connected to no more than three other realms, minus the Library, through various Ways scattered throughout. I have for many years been attempting to map all the connections between these worlds, but alas, my information is incomplete, and to discuss it further would be a disservice to the reader.4

Now, there have been numerous reports from various sources claiming they have stumbled upon “mirrors” of these worlds, or that somehow a duplicate exists, unsubstantiated claims that can be blamed on one of three reasons. One, they simply lied, hoping to gain some sort of recognition for their host; two, upon arriving on a different world they mistook some aspects of it for those of a Lone Realm, and reached the hasty conclusion that the two were one and the same; three, upon being transported to a part of the Realm they were unfamiliar with, decided that it must have been a separate version of the realm.

Of course, the bulk of the True Universe is made up of Faceted Realms, worlds which appear again and again with variations that range from the minor, to completely bizarre, and can be thought of as the smaller villages scattered throughout our kingdom. The most common of these (or, should I say, the one most known to Patrons), is the Homeworld (aka The Bastard Lands, the Lost Kingdoms, AKRIS, Earth, Terra’s Body, etc.), which I believe to exist in close to one hundred thousand variations in between the Lone realms and Library.5

There are, of course, hundreds of other Faceted Realms, but none existing in so many variations as the Homeworld. Faceted Realms, unlike the Lone Ones, also have a tendency to form and dissolve, though at a skewed rate such that there is constant growth in the number of them. The cause of this is unknown to me, but through travel and calculation I have noticed a curious trend: the growth rate between the number of Faceted Realms and the size of the Library are exactly proportional. The possible ramifications and meanings of this relationship are unknown even to me.6

Of particular note is the connection between the Faceted and Lone Realms. While Lone Realms each only have access to a select few others, every Faceted Realm contains at least one entrance to each Lone Realm, and dozens, if not hundreds, of other Faceted Realms. The cause for this is still up for debate, though I hope my current research will be able to give us some insight into the situation. Also of note are the “Branch Realms”, as I like to call them (though a consensus on the appropriate name and indeed even their exact nature has yet to be reached), worlds connected to and accessible from only a single Faceted Realm. Often these are exceedingly small, perhaps no bigger than a planet, though they can range in size drastically that some are almost as big as the Realm they are connected to.7

So, continuing our metaphor, we now have our Capital City, the Library, and our other major cities, the Lone Realms. We have villages in the form of Faceted Realms, and small farms and mills attached to these villages in the Branch Realms. There are roads (Ways) connecting them, forming, all told, a rather mighty kingdom.

But what Kingdom exists alone? There are neighboring countries, warring empires. On a single landmass, two dozen different fiefdoms may hold sway. And these continents come together to form worlds, these worlds star systems, and galaxies, superclusters, eventually a universe. Similarly, the “True Universe” is only one infinitesimally small piece of the larger multiverse, a fractal within a fractal, a pattern imitating a whole so massive that even imagining it in its entirety is almost impossible.8

How such a structure of worlds came to exist, whether it natural or by the whim of some greater Deity, is unknown to this author, and most likely shall always remain so. Perhaps it is one of those stones of knowledge best left unturned, though I’m sure it won’t be. Indeed, if there is anything I have learned over the course of my travels, it is that people, no matter what kind, thirst for knowledge above all else and damn the consequences. It is quite possibly their best feature, for where would we be without it?

Regardless, I hope that my humble work can be a valuable source of learning for those reading it, and that you have been enriched as much by reading it as I have been by writing it.

1. Other common use terms at the time included “Multiverse”, “Winding Worlds”, “Serpent’s Path”, and “Infinite Garden”

2. Although Masuchezaninin is best known today for his work in True Universal theory, he considered his greatest contribution to be that to the field of aditology, the philosophy of prerequisites

3. Currently there are 38 known Lone Realms. Notably, Halluspeza is no longer considered as such, after an identical world appeared at the point exactly opposite from it across the Library.

4. It is now know that all of the Realms connect to every other Realm, even if it is only by a single Way.

5. The reasons for Earth’s abundance in the True Universe are still not fully understood. Current theories point to its unusually strong connection to the Library

6. Though he never explained his calculations, Masuchezaninin was eerily accurate. The True Universe appears to grow at a constant rate 1.004 times that of the Library.

7. For more in depth discussion of the formation of Branch Realms, Jackie Heyry’s “Small Worlds” is an excellent introduction

8. This was the revelation that cemented Masuchezaninin as the leading True Universal theorist of his time, and one of the most important in history. For several months after its publication it was largely ignored or mocked. Following a passionate defense of his work by the South East Shelves, it began to gain more traction in the scholarly community.